1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to object oriented computer programming systems and more particularly to a method of implementing a preview window in an object oriented programming system, whereby a user may view underlying information in an application that includes at least a first panel and second panel selectively displayable on a computer display screen in which the second panel displays underlying information and the first panel displays an abbreviated or graphical representation of the underlying information, while the first panel is displayed.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Many computer application programs have multiple panels or views that display the same information in various levels of detail or granularity. For example, an electronic mall application typically has one or more "in-basket" panels that list the items received and one or more mail panels that contain the items themselves. The in-basket panel typically has fields for at least the identity of the sender and subject for each item of mail. The contents of the fields in the in-basket are taken from the mail items, and, because of space limitations, the contents are often truncated or abbreviated.
In another example, typical electronic calendar systems include daily panels or views and monthly panels or views. Presently, these systems allow the user to open the daily view to work with and view events of the day. For example, a typical daily view includes an entry area into which the user can enter event starting and stopping times and a description of the event. The monthly view displays a normal grid style calendar that includes a cell for each day. Whenever an event is scheduled on the daily panel, a graphical representation of the event is displayed on the monthly view. The graphical representation, which is known in the art as a "busy bar", allows the user to tell at a glance of the monthly view when the user is busy.
Presently, if the user desires to know what event or events are represented by a busy bar, the user must replace the monthly view with the appropriate daily view and then read through the events. In presently existing electronic calendars, the user typically cannot view both the daily panel and the monthly panel simultaneously. Thus, in order to review the month's events, the user must go back and forth between the monthly panel and the daily panel, which requires considerable user input and time in repainting the display screen. Moreover, the user must continually change focus between the daily panel and the monthly panel, which causes the user to have to re-establish his orientation each time he returns to the monthly panel.